In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in the use of biostimulants for improved crop production. Biostimulants are products that can promote plant growth when applied in amounts so small that they do not provide much nutrition. These are composed of different organisms, compounds or plant extracts; they include beneficial fungi and bacteria, humic and fulvic acid, seaweed extracts, and protein hydrolysates. During the 2022-23 growing season we evaluated three different biostimulant products in annual hill strawberry plasticulture production. ‘Ruby June’ plants were transplanted on 24 Oct, 2022 on non-fumigated beds and were maintained as per grower standard practices. Treatments were as follows (i) no biostimulant (ii) preplant AminoSalmon (247 kg/ha) applied during bed making (3) plugs dipped for 20 seconds in TerraGrow Liquid (TGL, 3ml/38 L) prior to transplanting followed by a foliar spray and a drip application (1.5L/ha) at one, fourteen, and thirty days after transplanting, resuming monthly during spring; and (iv) EZ-GRO 16-0-0 (3.9 kg/ha) drip application 14 days after transplanting and every 14 days during fall, resuming during spring. All non-treatment irrigation valves were closed during treatment injection through the drip lines. Ripe fruit was harvested beginning 31 March and continued twice a week until 16 June. Harvested fruit was categorized into marketable and non-marketable yield by replicate and fruits were weighed for each category. Yields were cumulated for the season and expressed as g/plant for data analysis. For total yield and marketable yield, no treatment differences were found. Fruit size was estimated as g/fruit by weighing 10 marketable fruits weekly. Five marketable fruits were measured weekly for firmness using a texture analyzer then stored at -20 °C for later analysis of pH and total soluble solids (°Brix) using a digital refractometer. While fruit firmness and pH were not influenced by treatments, the application of both the amino salmon and EZ-GRO biostimulants significantly improved total soluble solids values compared to the untreated control.
